Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament · Proverbs Chapter 18

This series of proverbs now turns from the fool to the separatist:

The separatist seeketh after his own pleasure;

Against all that is beneficial he showeth his teeth.

The reflexive נפרד has here the same meaning as the Rabbinical פּרשׁ מן־הצּבּוּר , to separate oneself from the congregation, Aboth ii. 5; נפרד denotes a man who separates himself, for he follows his own counsel, Arab. mnfrd ( mtfrrd ) brâyh , or jḥys almḥḥl ( seorsum ab aliis secedens ). Instead of לתּאוה , Hitzig, after Jerome, adopts the emendation לתאנה , “after an occasion” (a pretext), and by נפרד thinks of one pushed aside, who, thrown into opposition, seeks to avenge himself. But his translation of 1b, “against all that is fortunate he gnasheth his teeth,” shows how much the proverb is opposed to this interpretation. נפרד denotes one who willingly (Judges 4:11), and, indeed, obstinately withdraws himself. The construction of יבקּשׁ with ל (also Job 10:6) is explained by this, that the poet, giving prominence to the object, would set it forward: a pleasure ( תאוה , as Arab. hawan , unstable and causeless direction of the mind to something, pleasure, freak, caprice), and nothing else, he goes after who has separated himself (Fl.); the effort of the separatist goes out after a pleasure, i.e., the enjoyment and realization of such; instead of seeking to conform himself to the law and ordinance of the community, he seeks to carry out a separate view, and to accomplish some darling plan: libidinem sectatur sui cerebri homo . With this 1b accords. תּוּשׁיּה ( vid., at Proverbs 2:7) is concretely that which furthers and profits. Regarding התגּלּע , vid., at Proverbs 17:14. Thus putting his subjectivity in the room of the common weal, he shows his teeth, places himself in fanatical opposition against all that is useful and profitable in the principles and aims, the praxis of the community from which he separates himself. The figure is true to nature: the polemic of the schismatic and the sectary against the existing state of things, is for the most part measureless and hostile.

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2 The fool hath no delight in understanding;

But only that his heart may reveal itself therein.

The verb חפץ forms the fut. יחפּץ as well as יחפּץ ; first the latter from חפץ , with the primary meaning, to bow, to bend down; then both forms as intransitive, to bend oneself to something, to be inclined to something, Arab. 'ṭf . (Fl.). תּבוּנה is here the intelligence which consists in the understanding of one's own deficiency, and of that which is necessary to meet it. The inclination of the fool goes not out after such intelligence, but ( כּי אם־ ; according to Ben-Naphtali, כי־אם ) only that his heart, i.e., the understanding which he thinks that he already possesses, may reveal itself, show itself publicly. He thinks thereby to show himself in his true greatness, and to render a weighty service to the world. This loquacity of the fool, proceeding from self-satisfaction, without self-knowledge, has already, Proverbs 12:23, and often, been reprimanded.

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The group beginning with Proverbs 18:3 terminates in two proverbs (Proverbs 18:6 and Proverbs 18:7), related to the concluding verse of the foregoing:

3 If a godless man cometh, then cometh also contempt;

And together with disgrace, shame.

J. D. Michaelis, and the most of modern critics, read רשׁע ; then, contempt etc., are to be thought of as the consequences that follow godlessness; for that קלון means (Hitzig) disgracefulness, i.e., disgraceful conduct, is destitute of proof; קלון always means disgrace as an experience. But not only does the Masoretic text punctuate רשׁע , but also all the old translators, the Greek, Aramaic, and Latin, have done so. And is it on this account, because a coming naturally seems to be spoken of a person? The “pride cometh, then cometh shame,” Proverbs 11:2, was in their recollection not less firmly, perhaps, than in ours. They read רשׁע , because בוּז does not fittingly designate the first of that which godlessness effects, but perhaps the first of that which proceeds from it. Therefore we adhere to the opinion, that the proverb names the fiends which appear in the company of the godless wherever he goes, viz., first בוז , contempt (Psalms 31:19), which places itself haughtily above all due subordination, and reverence, and forbearance; and then, with the disgrace [ turpitudo ], קלון , which attaches itself to those who meddle with him (Isaiah 22:18), there is united the shame, הרפּה (Psalms 39:9), which he has to suffer from him who has only always expected something better from him. Fleischer understands all the three words in the passive sense, and remarks, “ עם־קלון חרפה , a more artificial expression for קלון וחרפה , in the Turkish quite common for the copula wāw , e.g., swylh ṭbrâk , earth and water, 'wrtylh âr , the man and the woman.” But then the expression would be tautological; we understand בוז and חרפה of that which the godless does to others by his words, and קלון of that which he does to them by his conduct. By this interpretation, עם is more than the representative of the copula.

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4 Deep waters are the words from a man's mouth,

A bubbling brook, a fountain of wisdom.

Earlier, we added to hominis the supplement sc. sapientis , but then an unnecessary word would be used, and that which is necessary omitted. Rather it might be said that אישׁ is meant in an ideal sense; but thus meant, אישׁ , like גּבר , denotes the valiant man, but not man as he ought to be, or the man of honour; and besides, a man may be a man of honour without there being said of him what this proverb expresses. Ewald comes nearer the case when he translates, “deep waters are the heart-words of many.” Heart-words - what an unbiblical expression! The lxx, which translates λόγος ἐν καρδίᾳ , has not read דברי לב , but דבר בלב (as Proverbs 20:5, עצה בלב־ ). But that “of many” is certainly not a right translation, yet right in so far as אישׁ (as at Proverbs 12:14) is thought of as made prominent: the proverb expresses, in accordance with the form of narrative proverbs which present an example, what occurs in actual life, and is observed. Three different things are said of the words from a man's mouth: they are deep waters, for their meaning does not lie on the surface, but can be perceived only by penetrating into the secret motives and aims of him who speaks; they are a bubbling brook, which freshly and powerfully gushes forth to him who feels this flow of words, for in this brook there never fails an always new gush of living water; it is a fountain or well of wisdom, from which wisdom flows forth, and whence wisdom is to be drawn. Hitzig supposes that the distich is antithetic; מים עמקּים , or rather מי מעמקּים , “waters of the deep,” are cistern waters; on the contrary, “a welling brook is a fountain of wisdom.” But עמק means deep, not deepened, and deep water is the contrast of shallow water; a cistern also may be deep (cf. Proverbs 22:14), but deep water is such as is deep, whether it be in the ocean or in a ditch. 4b also does not suggest a cistern, for thereby it would be indicated that the description, דברי פי־אישׁ , is not here continued; the “fountain of wisdom” does not form a proper parallel or an antithesis to this subject, since this much rather would require the placing in contrast of deep and shallow, of exhausted (drained out) and perennial. And: the fountain is a brook, the well a stream - who would thus express himself! We have thus neither an antithetic nor a synonymous (lxx after the phrase ἀναπηδῶν , Jerome, Venet., Luth.), but an integral distich before us; and this leads us to consider what depths of thought, what riches of contents, what power of spiritual and moral advancement, may lie in the words of a man.

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5 To favour the person of the godless is not good,

And to oppress the righteous in judgment.

As Proverbs 18:4 has one subject, so Proverbs 18:5 has one predicate. The form is the same as Proverbs 17:26. שׂאת פּני (cf. Proverbs 24:23), προσωποληψία , acceptio personae , is this, that one accepts the פני , i.e. the personal appearance of any one ( πρόσωπον λαμβάνει ), i.e., regards it as acceptable, respectable, agreeable, which is a thing in itself not wrong; but in a judge who ought to determine according to the facts of the case and the law, it becomes sinful partiality. הטּות , in a forensic sense, with the accus. of the person, may be regarded in a twofold way: either as a turning aside, מדּין , Isaiah 10:2, from following and attaining unto the right, or as an oppression, for the phrase הטּה משׁפּט [to pervert justice] (cf. Proverbs 17:23) is transferred to the person who experiences the oppression = perversion of the law; and this idea perhaps always underlies the expression, wherever, as e.g., Malachi 3:5, no addition brings with it the other. Under Proverbs 17:15 is a fuller explanation of לא־טוב .

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6 The lips of the fool engage in strife,

And his mouth calleth for stripes.

We may translate: the lips of the fool cause strife, for בּוא ב , to come with anything, e.g., Psalms 66:13, is equivalent to bring it (to bring forward), as also: they engage in strife; as one says בּוא בדמים : to be engaged in bloodshed, 1 Samuel 25:26. We prefer this intrant ( ingerunt se ), with Schultens and Fleischer. יבאוּ for תּבאנה , a synallage generis, to which, by means of a “self-deception of the language” (Fl.), the apparent masculine ending of such duals may have contributed. The stripes which the fool calleth for ( קרא ל , like Proverbs 2:3) are such as he himself carries off, for it comes a verbis ad verbera . The lxx: his bold mouth calleth for death ( פיו ההמה מות יקרא ); למהלמות has, in codd. and old editions, the Mem raphatum, as also at 19:29; the sing. is thus מהלוּם , like מנוּל to מנעליו , for the Mem dagessatum is to be expected in the inflected מהלם , by the passing over of the ō into ǔ .

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7 The mouth of the fool is to him destruction,

And his lips are a snare to his soul.

As Proverbs 18:6 corresponds to Proverbs 17:27 of the foregoing group, so this Proverbs 18:7 corresponds to Proverbs 17:28. Regarding מחתּה־לּו , vid., Proverbs 13:3. Instead of פי כּסיל , is to be written פּי־כסיל , according to Torath Emeth, p. 40, Cod. 1294, and old editions.

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A pair of proverbs regarding the flatterer and the slothful:

8 The words of the flatter are as dainty morsels,

And they glide down into the innermost parts.

An “analogy, with an epexegesis in the second member” (Fl.), which is repeated in Proverbs 26:22. Ewald, Bertheau, Hitzig, and others, are constrained to interpret המו as introducing a contrast, and in this sense they give to מתלהמים all kinds of unwarrantable meanings. Ewald translates: a burning ( להם , cogn. להב ), and offers next: as whispering ( להם , cogn. רעם , נהם ); Ch. B. Michaelis, Bertheau, and others: as sporting ( להם , cogn. להה ); Hitzig: like soft airs ( להם , cogn. Arab. hillam , flaccus, laxus ). All these interpretations are without support. The word להם has none of all these significations; it means, as the Arab. lahima warrants, deglutire . But Böttcher's explanation also: “as swallowed down, because spoken with reserve,” proceeds, like those others, from the supposed syntactically fine yet false supposition, that 8b is an antithetic “ dennoch ” [ tamen ]. In that case the poet would have written והם ירדים (cf. והוא , as the beginning of a conditional clause, Proverbs 3:29; Proverbs 23:3). But והוא , והם , with the finite following, introduces neither here nor at Deuteronomy 33:3; Judges 20:34; Psalms 95:10, cf. Genesis 43:23, a conditional clause. Thus 8b continues the clause 8a by one standing on the same line; and thus we do not need to invent a meaning for כמתלהמים , which forms a contrast to the penetrating into the innermost parts. The relation of the parts of the proverb is rightly given by Luther:

The words of the slanderer are stripes,

And they go through the heart of one.

He interprets להם as transposed from הלם (Rashi and others); but stripes cannot be called מתלהמים - they are called, 6b, מהלמות . This interpretation of the word has always more support than that of Symmachus: ὡς ἀκέραιοι ; Jerome: quasi simplicia ; Aquila, xxvi. 22: γοητικοί ; which last, as also that of Capellus, Clericus, and Schultens: quasi numine quodam afflata , seems to support itself on the Arab. âhm iv. inspirare . But in reality âhm does not mean afflare ; it means deglutire , and nothing else. The Jewish lexicographers offer nothing worth considering; Kimchi's חלקים , according to which the Venet. translates μαλθακιζόμενοι , is fanciful; for the Talm. הלם , striking = hitting, suitable, standing well, furnishes no transition to “smooth” and “soft.” Immanuel compares âhm = בלע ; and Schultens, who is followed by Gesenius and others, has already, with perfect correctness, explained: tanquam quae avidissime inglutiantur . Thus also Fleischer: things which offer themselves to be eagerly gulped down, or which let themselves be thus swallowed. But in this way can one be truly just to the Hithpa.? The Arab. âlthm (stronger form, âltkm , according to which van Dyk translates mthl uḳam ḥlwt , like sweet morsels) means to swallow into oneself, which is not here appropriate. The Hithpa. will thus have here a passive signification: things which are greedily swallowed. Regarding נרגּן from רגן , vid., at Proverbs 16:28. המו refers to the words of the flatterer, and is emphatic, equivalent to aeque illa, etiam illa , or illa ipsa . ירד is here connected with the obj. accus. (cf. Proverbs 1:12) instead of with אל , Proverbs 7:27. חדרי , penetralia , we had already at Proverbs 7:27; the root-word is (Arab.) khdr , to seclude, to conceal, different from ḥdr , demittere , and ḥkhr (cogn. חזר ), to finish, circumire . בּטן is the inner part of the body with reference to the organs lying there, which mediate not only the life of the body, but also that of the mind - in general, the internal part of the personality. The lxx does not translate this proverb, but has in its stead Proverbs 19:15, in a different version, however, from that it gives there; the Syr. and the Targ. have thereby been drawn away from the Hebr. text.

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9 He also who showeth himself slothful in his business,

Is a brother to him who proceedeth to destroy.

The Hithpa. התרפּה signifies here, as at Proverbs 24:10, to show oneself slack, lazy, negligent. מלאכה is properly a commission for another, as a king has a messenger, ambassador, commissioner to execute it; here, any business, whether an undertaking in commission from another, or a matter one engages in for himself. He who shows himself slack therein, produces in his way, viz., by negligence, destruction, as truly as the בּעל משׁחית , who does it directly by his conduct. Thus one is named, who is called, or who has his own delight in it, to destroy or overthrow. Jerome, incorrectly limiting: sua opera dissipantis . Hitzig well compares Matthew 12:30. In the variation, Proverbs 28:24, the destroyer is called אישׁ משׁחית , the connection of the words being adject.; on the contrary, the connection of בעל משׁחית is genit. (cf. Proverbs 22:24; Proverbs 23:2, etc.), for משׁחית as frequently means that which destroys = destruction. Von Hofmann ( Schriftbew. ii. 2, 403) understands ' אישׁ מ of the street robber, ' בעל מ of the captain of robbers; but the designation for the latter must be ' שׂר מ , though at 1 Kings 11:24 he is called by the name שׂר גּדוּד . The form of the word in the proverb here is more original than at 38:24. There חבר [companion] is used, here אח [brother], a general Semitic name of him who, or of that which, is in any way related to another, cf. Job 30:29. Fleischer compares the Arab. proverb: âlshbht âkht alkhṭyât , scepticism is the sister of sin.

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Two proverbs, of the fortress of faith, and of the fortress of presumption:

10 A strong tower is the name of Jahve;

The righteous runneth into it, and is high.

The name of Jahve is the Revelation of God, and the God of Revelation Himself, the creative and historical Revelation, and who is always continually revealing Himself; His name is His nature representing itself, and therefore capable of being described and named, before all the Tetragramm, as the Anagramm of the overruling and inworking historical being of God, as the Chiffre of His free and all-powerful government in grace and truth, as the self-naming of God the Saviour. This name, which is afterwards interwoven in the name Jesus, is מגדּל־עז (Psalms 61:4), a strong high tower bidding defiance to every hostile assault. Into this the righteous runneth, to hide himself behind its walls, and is thus lifted ( perf. consec.) high above all danger (cf. ישׂגּב , Proverbs 29:25). רוּץ אל means, Job 15:26, to run against anything, רוץ , seq. acc., to invest, blockade anything, רוץ בּ , to hasten within; Hitzig's conjecture, ירוּם riseth up high, instead of ירוּץ , is a freak. רוץ בּ is speedily בוא בּ , the idea the same as Psalms 27:5; Psalms 31:21.

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11 The possession of the righteous is his strong fort,

And is like a high wall in his imagination.

Line first = Proverbs 10:15. משׂכּית from שׂכה , Chald. סכה (whence after Megilla 14a, יסכּה , she who looks), R. שׂך , cogn. זך , to pierce, to fix, means the image as a medal, and thus also intellectually: image (conception, and particularly the imagination) of the heart (Psalms 73:7), here the fancy, conceit; Fleischer compares (Arab.) tṣwwr , to imagine something to oneself, French se figurer . Translators from the lxx to Luther incorrectly think on שׂכך ( סכך ), to entertain; only the Venet. is correct in the rendering: ἐν φαντασίᾳ αὐτοῦ ; better than Kimchi, who, after Ezra 8:12, thinks on the chamber where the riches delighted in are treasured, and where he fancies himself in the midst of his treasures as if surrounded by an inaccessible wall.

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